An alternative middle school will open next month, with an opening enrollment of 45 students, and it will officially be called the Resiliency Middle School.

The naming followed executive session during Monday night's meeting at Morton Middle School. School Committee members rejected the previously proposed name, the Choice Academy, by a 5 to 1 vote, with committee member Paul Hart not present due to an illness.

"The word choice leads me to believe the students have a choice," said committee member Joseph Martins, during the discussion prior to the first vote. "At the last meeting we said, 'sorry with your behavior as such you do not seem to be able to conduct yourself properly in the classroom. You don't have a choice until your behavior is such you can cope with being a student in the classroom.'"

"I don't think it jives with the intent of the school, there is no choice," added committee member Melissa Panchley, serving her first committee meeting.

Committee members tossed other naming options — including the Good Choices Academy and Middle School Academy — none of which were seconded as motions.

Earlier in the evening, the committee voted unanimously to reelect vice chairman Mark Costa to his fourth term in that position.

During another discussion, committee members took issue with statements by the school district's independent monitor in her most recent report of the committee's progress toward improving its governance of the school district. The report was made public during the meeting.

The district's independent monitor, Joan Connolly, wrote that while progress had been made, there had also been "setbacks" during the reporting period, from July 2013 through December 2013.

Connolly wrote "while the School Committee has made progress in some areas of its work, it is evident that the changes in practice that are written in policy are not always followed during challenging times… there is a return to former ineffective practices which do not in any way support the work of accelerated district progress," Connolly wrote.

Specifically, Connolly referenced the decision made by Flanagan during the committee's Dec. 9 meeting to waive the established rules limiting public comment during committee meetings to agenda items.

During that meeting Flanagan allowed waived the rule to allow parents and other community members to share their concerns about students' safety at Morton.

Connolly also referenced the committee's July 16 vote rejecting the then-proposed Fall River Innovation Academy as another example of a "setback."

On the matter of the FRIA proposal, Connolly wrote that the committee had "voted in favor of recommendations made by the superintendent in preparation for the creation of the school" but "the final vote of approval failed."

Costa told Connolly he felt that outside the Dec. 9 meeting the committee had been following its established policies. He said he felt the report was unbalanced.

Page 2 of 2 - "From July to December, adherence to policy went well," Costa said. "I don't mind the criticism… The only issue reflected here is negativity. I think there's a lot of other good work that's happened that's simply not captured. All I'm asking for is some balance.

Costa said prior to the FRIA vote there was a "spirited discussion" on the proposal.

Speaking directly to Connolly, Flanagan defended his decision to allow parents to share their concerns about school safety.

"You were critical of me not adhering to policy to listen to concerns. If there is any exception to the rule that is the exception," Flanagan said. "But for the DESE to be critical of me as mayor for waiving the established policy to listen to the public safety concerns of mostly parents there's no other exception to the rule I can think of.

"Is there or is there not an exception to the established policy?" Flanagan asked.

"There is always opportunity for exceptions to policy, but what I'm doing is monitoring the plan that you all have agreed to, to make progress in this district," Connolly responded.

With that, the committee voted to accept the report.

The Committee also formally recognized with citations former Matthew J. Kuss principal Nancy Mullen and current Kuss principal Michael Procaccini and John Doran Community School principal Maria Pontes for their efforts, which helped led to successful turnarounds in those schools.